


Light the Flame

by Kivea



Category: South Park
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Confessions, Fluff, Getting Together, High School, Humor, M/M, Romantic Comedy, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29025156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kivea/pseuds/Kivea
Summary: They were friends. They were just normal, every day friends, that shared similar interested and enjoyed each other's company. There was nodeep meaning, no hidden agenda, just friends.And thenEric Cartmanhad to come along and ruin Kyle's day like always, with some dumb Love Test game the girls had shown him.
Relationships: Kyle Broflovski/Craig Tucker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 54
Collections: Amaretto





	Light the Flame

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is! The piece I made for the Cryle Zine! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy it, and check out the complete thing which you can get for free online here: https://www.yumpu.com/xx/document/read/65133528/cryle-fanzine

Kyle knew that emotions weren’t his strong point. He liked to think that he had a pretty good handle on his own, but that was probably a bit of a stretch. His temper could be…volcanic, and ‘empathy’ was a word that was a little bizarre to him. _Of course_ he couldn’t tell what other people were feeling; he wasn’t in their head, and that’s why people should just be _forthcoming_ with their thoughts. 

He tried his best to be sympathetic. Sometimes…he missed the mark, that was true, but he did try his best. Love and fear often went hand in hand, and he was a bit of a pushover for the people he held close. 

He liked to think that he knew how he felt about other people. Sure, maybe sometimes in the past he didn’t notice when feelings grew until someone pointed it out to him, and _maybe sometimes_ it landed him in difficult situations, but not every time. 

He and Craig were friends. Childhood friends. Lab partners, from the beginning of the year. When they had first became lab partners he had a new appreciation for how intelligent the other boy was. More than just sour, lazy, and admittedly funny at times, Craig had begun to apply himself in his classes, and it made him stand out. To Kyle, at least. 

If nothing else, Kyle should’ve known himself well enough to realise that he couldn’t trust his own emotions. 

\--

Detention on a Monday. 

It was totally bogus, in his opinion. The five of them had been late; there was commotion outside that they had all ended up being dragged into. Maybe he helped get them dragged in a little too much, all too happy to correct an adult when they said something _fucking stupid_ , and Stan was always quick to his defence. He had ended up arguing outside of the school with some redneck with Stan about choosing outside of a school to hold their rally. 

Craig, Bebe, and Red happened to be passing by, and had taken the chance to watch. When the redneck had started to get a little too aggressive for Craig’s tastes, he had stepped in to stand up for Kyle, with the girls hot on his heel. Kyle couldn’t help but feel a rush of affection for his friends. It was always nice when Craig’s ‘devil may care’ attitude was pushed aside to stand up for someone. 

Unfortunately that’s when the cops showed up, and the South Park police force was _notorious_ for being able to make a bad situation worse. 

So they got into school half an hour into their first lesson, where each of them had earned themselves a detention during their lunch break. 

Kyle and Stan arrived first. There were a couple of other kids from different years in their detention dotted about, and the pair were quick to find a place near the back that had room around it. Red was next, and she made idle conversation with them from the row in front until the other two arrived. 

Craig and Bebe were already poking and prodding at each other, elbows knocking as she teased him and he tried to elbow her in the ribs. When steely eyes set on him, he felt another rush of affection and raised his hand to signal them over. 

Not like he would get lost in the sea of maybe five other people in the room. But just in case. 

He grinned up as Craig sat next to him, slouching low in his chair. “Fucking half my lunch. This is your fault, Broflovski.” 

“My fault?” he questioned with mock offense. “How is it my fault?” 

“You were the one arguing with some dude outside school.” 

“No one forced you to intervene, oh white knight. I could’ve taken him.” 

“Probably, yeah.” 

Before he had a chance to continue the conversation, Bebe had spun around in her chair and began snapping her fingers at them. 

“You two, don’t just ignore the rest of us, it's your fault we’re here, you get to entertain us.” 

“It’s not _exclusively_ my fault!” 

“No, you share responsibility with Craig.” 

“What about Stan?” Kyle argued, completely willing to throw his super best friend under the bus. 

Bebe shrugged it off. “What can I say? Stan’s too cute to be mad at. But you’re getting me off topic. I know a game we can play.” 

Stan’s brow furrowed at that. “I’m not sure we’re allowed to play games in detention.” 

“Oh, don’t be a joy-kill, it’s not like it’s one of your big fancy board games. It’s just a paper game. Like…a little test.” 

“Oh,” Red perked up. “Are you talking about the Flames game?” 

Bebe grinned as she pointed a finger at her friend. “Bingo!” 

“What’s the Flames game?” Kyle asked. 

“It’s like a little calculator to see how much we like each other.” 

“That’s stupid.” 

“Shove off, Craig. It’s just a fun way to pass the time,” Bebe argued as she began writing down words in her notebook. “We’re in here for half an hour, we might as well do something.” 

“Aren’t we meant to be quiet? Obeying the rules of detention?” Craig drawled with a raised brow. “Not buying into your dumb kindergarten games?” 

She scoffed. “Please, like you care about the rules of detention.” 

“How does it work?” Stan asked. 

The blonde was quick to spin round in her chair and slam her notebook on the table. Kyle’s table, startling the redhead who looked down at the page. He glanced up to see her brown eyes twinkling with mischief and a smirk decorating her face. Across the page of her notebook was the word ‘flame’, written in big, spaced out letters. 

“Each of these letters represents, like, a type of relationship,” she began pointing with her pen. “Friendship, lovers, attraction, marriage, enemies, and siblings.” 

Stan peered over Kyle’s shoulder. “Yeah, Craig’s right. This seems kind of stupid.” 

“Well why don’t we start with you two, seeing as you’re on the same wavelength?” Red suggested with a smirk. 

“What? No. Start with someone else.” 

Bebe ignored him, writing down their names and continuing with her game. “Alright, so, you both have an ‘A’ in your name, so we’ll scratch that one out, and that leaves us with seven letters…” 

“I didn’t agree to this,” Craig pointed out with a scowl. “Also? It’s _dumb_.” 

“…And then we count seven from the start, and each time we land on a letter, we cross it out.” 

Kyle watched as she began to count. Despite their resolute insistence that it was stupid and dumb, Craig and Stan both fell quiet as she began to count letters. They all watched on as she crossed off each letter in turn until she was left with only two. 

“…five, six, seven!” she crossed off the final letter to leave ‘E’ staring back at her, and her eyes lit up wickedly. “Ooh, enemies! Is there more to that friendly rivalry that you’re not telling us, boys? Keeping an angry secret?” 

“No,” Craig supplied with a dry voice. “There’s no secret. I never said I didn’t hate him.” 

Red rolled her eyes. “Don’t kid yourself, Craig. You’re friends with these assholes.” 

“I’m friends with no one.” 

Stan had his interest piqued as he leant forward in his chair. “Hey, let me try it.” 

Before he got the chance, the teacher returned to the room and barked at them all to stop slacking off and crowding round Kyle’s table. 

Once their eyes weren’t on the group anymore, Bebe and Red lent their heads close together in order to gossip, while Stan pulled out his phone and opened up his most recent favourite mobile game. 

It left Kyle with Craig to talk to. He wasn’t going to complain. 

Craig was already looking at him, and he didn’t get a chance to speak before the man asked: “Did you do the bio homework already?” 

“You are _not_ copying off me again.” 

The pout looked out of place on Craig’s usually irritated face, but it had mirth bubbling in Kyle’s chest. 

He ended up giving in. 

They’d always been friends, ever since elementary. And when he said they, he meant not just him and Craig, but the whole South Park lot. Going to Park County High led them to sit together in a pack-like mentality, loyal to the core. Well, most of them, at least. Craig was no different. 

Sure, their interests changed and differed over the years, and some friendships grew stronger than others, but the boys in their class did their best to stick together. 

It was no surprise that Craig was one of the ones he stuck close to, especially after Craig got bumped up to his science classes and became his lab partner, clattering down to the seat next to him with all the grace of an elephant and told him if he had to work with some nerdy weirdo, it might as well be one he knew. 

He found himself wanting to spend more time with Craig. Actively seeking the other out. He was easy to talk to, and they’d known each other long enough that there was a comfortableness in their interactions. Sure, he’d never replace Stan, or Kenny, but he was always looking for an excuse to replace Cartman. 

He’d said that to Craig once, who had shot him a disgusted look and said: ‘I’ll pass on the spot of ‘fat asshole’, thanks.’ 

Their friendship was normal. Nothing was weird about it. 

Trust his favourite _fat asshole_ to go and make it weird. 

\--

They weren’t sure if Bebe’s ‘Flame Test’ was popular before she’d told them about it, and they just never took an interest enough to notice, or if it blew up after, but Kyle and Stan were noticing it everywhere. 

He witnessed Nichole teaching Stan how to do it before one of their classes, laughing as Stan did one and then declared it ‘over’. 

“It’s dumb,” Stan confirmed. “Once you know what numbers land where it’s just…done!” 

“Sorry it’s not high-engagement enough for your brain,” Nichole teased with a single raised brow and a playful smile. “We can’t play Arkham Horror every day.” 

“Ugh,” Kyle pulled a face at them both. “Something doesn’t have to last eight hours for it to be fun, Stan.” 

He honestly thought that would be the last of it. It would go around for a couple of days and then blow over, and it would just pass him by like a lot of the fads that went round the school. He continued his day like normal and it went almost exactly as he thought it would. 

Almost. 

He finished his class with Craig and followed the other boy to his locker, subjecting Craig to a long rant over his feelings on how patronising their math teacher could be. 

“You just like to feel like you’re the smartest person in the room,” Craig drawled as he shuffled his books around. 

“That’s not the point! Even outside of that, he’s an asshole.” 

Craig smirked over the top of his locker. “You sure? It’s not your Napoleon complex acting up?” 

“There are so many things wrong with that sentence!” Kyle huffed out. “First, just because you’re taller than me, doesn’t mean I’m short!” 

“Sounds like something a short person would say.” 

“Secondly, Napoleon probably wasn’t actually that short, and you only use it to wind me up! Stop spewing shit, Craig.” 

“Stop getting wound up by it and it wouldn’t be so funny,” Craig snorted as he shut his locker. “Did you bring lunch in today? I’m fucking starving.” 

“No, did you?” 

“Never.” 

They arrived at their usual lunch table to find Kenny, Clyde, and Stan there already, sitting round chattering amongst themselves. Craig took his seat next to Clyde, with Kyle squeezing on the end of their bench next to him. Clyde was already beginning to make grabby hands for Craig’s food and the pair started to bicker like an old married couple. 

It was normal. Just a normal day. 

“Shove off!” Craig snapped at Clyde, before spinning round to the redhead. “Swap places with me, so this asshole’ll stop stealing my lunch.” 

“Craig!” Clyde whined out. “You can’t just replace me with Kyle!” 

“Fuckin’ watch me.” 

Kyle grinned wide. “Who’s to say I won’t just steal your lunch instead?” 

“I hate all of you. Especially you.” 

The fry jabbed in his direction did nothing to make him believe Craig’s words. It only served to make his smile grow. 

Before they could start any real conversation, another person arrived at their table, barrelling into it and capturing everyone’s attention. They all stared on in silence, waiting for whatever it was that had such a giddy smile spread across the brunette’s face. 

Cartman looking that happy never provided anything good. 

“You guys,” he started in a rush. “Kelly showed me the coolest game.” 

Stan perked up at that, peering over at the book that was clasped tightly in Cartman’s hands. “What is it?” 

Cartman shied away from his gaze though, hiding the book against his chest. “You can’t see it! It’s gotta be a surprise!” 

“You’re so dramatic, dude, what game is it?” 

“It’s…!” Cartman slammed his notebook on the table with a manic grin for them all to see. “The Flames test!” 

Clyde gave a dutiful ‘ooh’ of interest as Kenny looked over Cartman's shoulder. The other three groaned with annoyance. 

“Not this again,” Craig scowled across the table at Cartman. “Of course you would start doing this.” 

“It’s harmless, Craig!” Cartman argued with a sweet smile. “Harmless little game between friends, what’s wrong with that?” 

“I’m with Craig,” Kyle agreed with narrowed eyes. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but it’s suspicious.” 

“Well, I guess we have our first volunteers, then!” 

Kyle blanched. Craig let out a sigh of frustration. 

“No, you don’t!” Kyle snapped as he tried to reach across the table to Cartman’s notebook. “I’m not doing your dumb-?!” 

“What’s wrong, Kyle, you worried about what truths may come out?” 

“They’re not truths, Cartman, it’s just a pattern game!” 

Stan rolled his eyes from his place next to Cartman but didn’t provide the help Kyle wanted. “Dude, just let him do it. It’s not a big deal.” 

Kyle slumped back down in his seat and glared across at his best friend. “Dude!” 

“What? I had to do it.” 

“Just because you had to doesn’t mean I should.” 

Cartman was already writing their names in his notebook. When Kyle peered over he could see several other names, and judging from the scratched letters suspected they weren’t the first unfortunate pair to suffer through Cartman’s game. 

“Let’s see…that’s nine letters, and starting from ‘F’…” 

Kyle watched as the pencil in Cartman’s hand began to move, counting down the letters before scratching one off. One by one every nine counts a letter had a line crossed through the page, marking it incorrect. He knew it was all a pile of shit, not worth anything, just a number game that worked on a pattern that spat out the same answers every time, but… 

But as the options decreased, Kyle’s breath got caught in his throat, watching as the last two options were presented, capital ‘M’ and capital ‘E’ waiting for Cartman to pick. Marriage and Enemies. 

In a moment of weakness he was left picturing exactly what the former entailed. 

“...eight and-!” Cartman’s face scrunched up as his pencil landed on the page. “Nine.” 

He scratched off the ‘M’. Kyle felt… 

_Disappointed?_

“Well, enemies it is!” he declared. “Hear that? Time to stop being all up close and personal with each other!” 

Craig threw a fry across the table, landing square in Cartman’s forehead. 

“Ey! Don’t be mad at me just because it didn’t give you-?!” 

“Maybe it was picturing me and you,” Craig suggested with a dark tone. “Because I sure as hell would love to come over there and break your nose.” 

Cartman gave a few barbing words, but left the table to go harass someone else, sliding up at the end of a table that held some other people from their year. Kyle sighed out and finally turned his glare from Cartman to his food. 

He felt… 

“Don’t let it get to you.” 

He snapped his head up, looking up at the boy next to him, who was munching away at his lunch, piercing eyes looking directly at Kyle. 

“It’s just some dumb pattern game.” 

“Right,” Kyle snapped his eyes back down to his food as he felt heat begin to creep up in his cheeks. “Just Cartman being a douche.” 

“Exactly.” 

He didn’t have a good feeling at all. 

\--

It never left his brain. After lunch he had parted ways with the others to go to his lab with Craig, and by the end of the class he couldn’t even look the other boy in the face without thinking about how nice he would look in a suit. 

It was ridiculous. This whole scenario was ridiculous. He was half tempted to walk home just for the fresh air, if not for how long it took. 

Once he’d got home he headed up to his bedroom in a bit of a trance, the events of the day running through his brain, though he was specifically stuck on one event in particular. 

He couldn’t stop thinking about it. He was there, lying on his bed, homework on his desk long since abandoned as he allowed his brain to swarm with thoughts that were entirely too confusing to really process. 

He groaned as he covered his eyes with his arm, blocking out the light of the room, and praying for this all to stop. 

Surely they weren’t _that_ incompatible, right? 

It was a perfectly logical thing to think about. They were friends, good friends, fast friends, so that meant that they had some compatibility, in whatever shape that took. To be friends with someone you had to at least like them in some way. Right? 

_Right?_

He growled out and sat up, reaching across to where his phone sat on the edge of his desk, scrambling as he nearly knocked it onto the floor in his desperate attempt to get a hold of it without having to leave his bed. 

He opened his search bar and began to hunt. 

There were loads of these dumb love test things. One of them had to turn up something…positive. 

Not that he wanted a _love_ test, specifically, more just their compatibility. For friendship. 

The first one he came up with was no good. People had created calculators that spat out percentages, and he grumbled as he abandoned the automatic calculators and instead found a paper version that he could do. 

When his brother opened the door to his room it was to find Kyle on the floor with wide eyes and a red face, phone in one hand, pen in the other, and the letters for ‘true love’ in big letters written across the page of his notepad and his and Craig’s names right next to it. As if he _couldn’t be caught any more red handed._

“It’s…dinner time.” 

“Right,” he choked out. “I’ll…be down in a minute.” 

“Sure,” Ike’s eyes flickered from the paper to Kyle’s face several times as he pulled the door closed slowly. “You just…finish up what you’re doing.” 

He raced out of his room to tackle Ike on the landing before the boy could get to his room and his phone, swearing him to secrecy. Kyle knew that Craig’s sister was not that much older than Ike. The last thing he needed was this getting around to her. 

He did his best after that to put it out his mind as much as he could. What that actually looked like was him going to bed way early after spending a few hours ignoring his homework and killing zombies on his Xbox. 

\--

It wasn’t like he was actively going out of his way to avoid Craig. Their interactions at school tended to be concentrated into very specific areas, like in shared classes, and at lunch, and in the library or study hall. Sure, they tended to stick together, because _all_ the South Park kids stuck together, and they just happened to get along. 

Because they were friends. Not enemies, or anything else. Just friends. 

So sure, when he sat down at lunch, maybe it looked a little bit weird that he decided against his usual seat on Craig’s side of the table and instead hip-bumped Kenny over to the centre of the opposite side so he could sit on the end next to the blonde, but that was because he liked sitting on the end of the table. And he never got to spend time with Kenny. 

Free food was enough to make sure he didn’t ask any questions. 

It didn’t even matter. Craig didn’t sit at their table. Stan and Clyde arrived, Cartman not far behind, with Jimmy choosing to sit with them also, and Kyle looked up to see that Craig was sat on the other side of the hall with Tweek, Red, and Kevin, chattering away with their heads together. 

Not that he was upset that Craig had sat somewhere else, or that it made a difference, because Kyle wasn’t planning on sitting next to him anyway, not because he was actively avoiding Craig, just because… 

Well, just because. He didn’t need a reason beyond that. 

After lunch found him by his locker with Stan, his best friend babbling on about something he wasn’t paying massive amounts of attention to. His brain wasn’t quite turned on that day. 

“Oh, dude, let me borrow your phone though, I’ve gotta show you their new song!” 

Kyle shut his locker and began to fish his phone out his pocket. “Why, did you run out of data again?” 

“Maybe.” 

“You know if you didn’t blow it all playing mobile games in the first week-?” 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m very irresponsible. Now, give me your phone.” 

He handed it over with a roll of his eyes. 

Stan continued to talk about the new song he wanted to show Kyle as he unlocked the phone and tapped away at the screen. Kyle leant against his locker and waited as patiently as he could. 

But then Stan’s eyebrows drew together in confusion, blinking dumbly at the screen as he read what was presented to him. 

“Dude…why is your search history…?” 

Kyle felt a rush of pure panic course through him and went to snatch his phone back. “Give me-?!” 

Stan held it up, putting a hand on Kyle’s chest to stop him reaching it. “Have you been looking at that flames test shit?” 

“No!” Kyle defended. “There’s just – there’s more than one!” 

“Huh. Who knew?” 

“I just – I wanted to know how it worked! Y’know, because they’re…popular right now, and so I thought maybe I should…be…prepared?” 

Stan raised a brow, finally looking away from the screen and back towards Kyle. “Seriously? That’s what you’re going with?” 

“Yes! It’s the truth!” 

“Why has this bothered you so much?” Stan asked as he finally handed over the phone. 

“It doesn’t matter.” 

“Does it have something to do with why you and Craig are ignoring each other?” 

“We’re not-?!” Kyle scoffed and threw his hands in the air. “We’re not _ignoring_ each other.” 

“Bullshit. At lunch you sat at the end of the table and made Kenny sit down next to you so no one else could, and then Craig didn’t even sit with us, he sat somewhere else.” 

“So? I’m allowed to want to sit next to Kenny.” 

“Yeah but you never do, you two have sat next to each other at lunch for…months,” Stan’s eyes began to lose focus, narrowing as they looked somewhere above Kyle’s head. “You’ve…become honestly kind of glued at the hip since…you started to be lab partners for…?” 

“Stan.” 

“Dude,” Stan’s eyes blew wide, jaw dropping as he turned his attention back to Kyle. “Do you have a crush on-?!” 

“No!” he shouted out loud enough to cut his friend off. “It’s not – it’s not a _crush_ , okay?” he dropped his voice to a whisper. 

“Then what is it?” 

Kyle struggled to answer that. 

Stan raised a brow in disbelief. 

“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out!” Kyle defended. “Trying to figure out why it is that I’ve been so…” 

“So what?” 

“Caught up on the whole thing!” 

Stan sucked in a breath as his eyebrows pulled together and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“What?!” 

“You’re like, one of the smartest people I know, but Jesus you’re a fucking idiot.” 

Kyle glared at his best friend, huffing out in frustration. 

The bell cut off any further talks about Kyle’s theoretical feelings, and instead Stan nudged him towards his class. 

He was half tempted to ask if he could go to Stan’s, instead. 

He arrived at the science classroom with his nerves thrumming, finding his seat and letting out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding as he realised he was the first one to the table. At least it gave him time to mentally prepare for the boy he was avoiding. 

Like, casually avoiding, not _actively_ avoiding. 

He slumped down on his stool and got out his unfinished report from last class as the seats filled up and the teacher arrived, only… 

Craig didn’t. Class started, and the seat next to him remained vacant. 

He tried not to let it bother him. 

He was succeeding, for the movie part, in ignoring the empty seat when his phone started to buzz in his pocket. They’d been instructed to concentrate on finishing their reports from last class, so it was easy to sneak his phone out and check what the message was, under the cover of having his head down working, as the low murmur of his classmates discussing their reports hid the buzzing. 

Every table except his, which was silent. 

_Kendoll_

_lol u totally have a crush on him don’t lie to urself_

Kyle felt embarrassment flare as the message came through. He should’ve known better than to trust Stan not to open his _fucking mouth to that blonde conspiring asshole._

His fingers darted across the screen as he gave a furious response. 

_I do not!!!!_

_haha u wanna bet???_

_kyle and token sittin in a tree_

Kyle’s brows furrowed as his frustration at his friends morphed into confusion, thrown completely off guard by the name given. Maybe Stan hadn’t outed him. Maybe he’d panicked and lied and said it was someone else. 

_wtf dude?_

_what??_

_Token??_

_haha see_

_if u didn’t have a crush on craig then u’d react the same as anyone else_

_but u don’t_

_bcs u do_

He felt like he’d been caught out. 

Not that there was anything to catch him out on. There was nothing to be caught out on. And yet… 

The pounding in his heart. The feeling of being caught out about lying. The fact that there was a big, gaping hold in his notebook where he’d torn out the page he’d been scribbling on and thrown it into the bin immediately after dinner so no one else would know how he’d been sat in his bedroom like some preteen doing _love tests_ on him and some boy. 

What if… 

_Kenny what if you’re right??_

_Like I know I told Stan I didn’t but_

_What if I do??_

_then ask him out??_

_idk what u want off me dude_

_u two r made for each other_

_i can hear the wedding bells already_

_ <3 <3 <3 <3 _

He felt his face flame as his soul departed his body. 

_SBF_

_omg youll admit it to Kenny but not to me???_

_I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU._

_what??_

_Talking about it to Kenny!_

_he already knew dude theres no hiding it from him_

They frustrated him. They frustrated him so very, very, very much. 

Before he could even figure out a way to respond to his friends, the classroom door opened. He glanced up and had to do a double take as he realised that the person who had walked into the room was his missing lab partner. His missing lab partner who was now at the front desk with the teacher, who was going over a note that he had for his absence. She waved him to sit down, and Kyle began to panic as the boy turned and started to head in his direction. 

His phone lit up with a notification that blared across the screen from Stan, and he nearly dropped it on the floor to get rid of it as quickly as possible. He didn’t know what the full sentence said. All he needed to know was the fact that it included the word _Craig_. 

Craig, who dropped his bag on the table, and sat down at the desk. 

Kyle was ridged, pen in one hand poised over the report he’d been writing, with no intention of actually writing anything more on the page. 

“She said to find out what we were doing from you.” 

“R-right!” he cleared his throat and gestured towards his notes. “We’ve been finishing the report from the last class, the lab we did?” 

“Oh,” something shifted on Craig’s face, eyes widening as he looked down at the paper. “So you’ve…been doing it by yourself?” 

“Yeah,” Kyle shrugged it off. “You weren’t here, so I couldn’t exactly do it with you.” 

“Shit, dude, I’m-?” 

“It’s fine,” Kyle insisted with a nervous laugh. “You can just…pick up now.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” 

Craig’s eyes flickered up to meet his own. “Because normally when I slack off, you yell at me.” 

“Yeah, well, today I guess…I’m just…not feeling it.” 

“Right.” 

The conversation was stilted from there. Craig spoke to him only to ask questions, and Kyle spoke only to answer them. For the most part he forwent actually answering them and just encouraged Craig to copy his work. 

Which was…something he usually put up a fight against. In that moment? He really just wanted it to be over. 

At the end of class he didn’t need to worry about running out the room, because Craig was already ahead of him. He grabbed his books in his arm and slung his bag over his shoulder without bothering to put them away, charging straight out the room. 

Kyle allowed his head to hit the table with a bang and grimaced. This was… 

What the fuck _was_ this? 

\--

“So he just…ditched the first half?” 

“Yes!” Kyle threw his hands in the air as he paced a hole into the carpet. “Like, what the fuck?! Where does he get off, ignoring me?!” 

Stan and Kenny exchanged a look. He pretended not to see it. 

“He ditched me to do half the work, and then when he turned up he barely spoke! He just copied my work! Who even does that?!” 

“Well-?” 

“Craig, that’s who!” he answered resolutely before Stan could. “And then at the end of class he just – ran! He fucking fled the room like I had some kind of disease!” 

“Haven’t you been avoiding him?” 

“He started it!” 

Kenny scoffed. “No, I’m pretty sure it was a mutual decision.” 

Kyle glared at the blonde and finally stopped pacing. “What do you know?” 

“I know you’re freaking out about-!” 

“Guys, let’s not fight,” Stan suggested, putting himself between the pair. “But Kenny’s right, you are freaking out.” 

“Who’s side are you on?!” 

“There’s no sides, we’re just here to help you,” Stan reasoned. “Will you sit down? You make me nervous when you pace.” 

Kyle huffed out and flopped down on his back on the bed next to Stan, Kenny leaning over the back of the computer chair he was curled up in. He decided not to throw a tantrum and insist he could do what he wanted in his own house. 

“So,” Stan drawled out in that dry, teasing tone he always did when he was going to give Kyle a hard time. “Craig Tucker, huh?” 

Kyle turned a harsh glare to him. 

Stan wasn’t fazed. “Who saw that one coming?” 

“I suppose we should’ve figured it out,” Kenny had a teasing grin across his face. “The way they’ve been glued at the hip, and now he wants to be glued at the dicks.” 

“Shut up!” Kyle huffed out. “You said you were here to help!” 

“We are helping.” 

“Like fuck you are.” 

Stan held up his hands. “Alright, alright, we’ll be serious. Craig. Are you gonna…?” 

“What?” 

“Y’know, ask him out or something?” 

Kyle grimaced. “I…hadn’t thought that far.” 

“If he’s anything like you and he’s ignoring you for the same reason, then...?” 

“But what if he’s not?!” Kyle was on his feet again in seconds. “What if he’s just really grossed out by it? Like, by me, or the idea of me? What if it’s the opposite for him and instead of imagining us – like _that –_ and liking it, he’s...?” 

“So what is your plan then?” 

“I don’t know, Stan!” 

Kenny whistled low and pushed his chair further forward. “I think you should probably say something, at least. Maybe not specifically about you having a massive gay boner for him-?” 

Kyle gave a choked out noise of protest. 

“-But at least about avoiding each other.” 

“Yeah, not to be that asshole, but it’s kind of killing our lunchtime buzz,” Stan agreed. 

Kyle rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine, but then...what do I say about it?” 

“You kidding? You’ve got the perfect escape goat!” Kenny pointed out with a wide, gap toothed grin. “Cartman!” 

“Cartman?” 

“Sure! Cartman’s always winding you up and getting in your head. You can pin anything on Cartman, especially this.” 

“I suppose...” 

Stan was in agreement. “Kenny’s right, dude. If you're that concerned about admitting your feelings, you can get around it.” 

“Fine...” 

“I still think you should ask him out,” Stan said. 

“Why?!” 

“Because I know what you’re like, and I know you’ll obsess over it for weeks and get all awkward around him. Better to just get it off your chest.” 

“I’ll think about it,” Kyle reasoned. “How about that?” 

“Fine. I’ll accept that. Now will you _please_ stop pacing and just chill out for a bit?” 

They hung about until his mom came up to announce that Mrs Marsh had arrived to take Stan back to the farm, signalling time for Stan to go home and time for Kenny to go to his part time job. Kyle waved goodbye to the pair out his window, seeing Kenny heading towards City Wok as the Tegridy Farm’s car drove away. 

He groaned low as he landed face down in his bed and attempted to figure out how the hell he was going to talk to Craig the next day, and what the hell he was even going to talk about. 

\--

Kyle decided the best way to approach this conversation was head on. If he was right, and Craig had been avoiding him, then he wouldn’t have much luck going about it naturally. He needed to get Craig’s attention and make sure he couldn’t avoid Kyle. 

So, he did the first thing that came to mind; he asked Stan to get his things from his locker for him and he instead went and waited by Craig’s locker before school. He knew that Tucker left most of his things in his locker and it was a near requirement for him to stop by it before his first classes. 

Kyle saw him from down the hall, approaching while chattering away with Token and Jimmy. As soon as the steely grey eyes looked up at him, Craig’s whole body seemed to stutter. He nearly tripped over his own feet, eyes widening a fraction as he seemingly swore under his breath and attempted to regain composure as Token checked on him. 

Kyle grimaced at it, dread creeping in. Maybe this was a bad idea. 

It was too late now. 

He waited for Craig to approach, waving goodbye to his friends before he picked up pace and made a beeline for his locker, which Kyle was stood in front of. 

“Broflovski,” Craig’s voice was low. Warning. “Any reason you’re blocking my locker?” 

“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you,” Kyle admitted. “But I didn’t really...know how to get your attention.” 

Craig narrowed his eyes. “We share classes, you could’ve just flagged me down or something.” 

“I wanted to talk to you now, though.” 

“You’re so dramatic,” Craig nodded his head to the left. “Move. At least talk to me while I get my shit.” 

Kyle shifted to the side, willing to play by that rule at least. He leant against the locker to the left as he watched Craig start to organise his things. 

He sucked in a breath and began to speak. “So, yesterday was weird.” 

“Was it?” Craig mused dryly. “I didn’t notice.” 

“Don’t be an asshole, you know what I mean.” 

All he got in response was a grunt. 

“Clearly we...let Cartman get to us,” Kyle started, opting to take the route Kenny had suggested. “I know that he can be a bit of a fucking dick sometimes, and he tends to get the best of me, so I’m sorry if I made things weird.” 

Craig finally pulled back from his locker with narrowed eyes that scanned up and down the redhead as if to appraise Kyle’s worth. 

He swallowed a lump in his throat and did his best not to dwell on how much he wanted to be worthy. 

He did his best to focus all his thoughts on how he so wanted Craig to take the bait. 

“Cartman is a dick,” Craig murmured. “I agree.” 

“Cool!” Kyle snapped up the agreement instantly. “I’m glad we can agree on that. Now we can just go back to...” 

To being friends? 

To not ignoring each other? 

To apparently, in Stan’s words, being glued at the hip? 

Craig stared at him with wide eyes and steadily reddening cheeks. 

“Yup!” Kyle declared. “Great talk! See ya!” 

He ran down the hallway with his tail between his legs, feeling like an utter _failure._

The rest of his day didn’t fair much better. He was distracted through his classes, answering with the complete wrong date in history class to something that he should’ve known perfectly well about, and during lunch... 

Craig sat at their table, and he slid into the seat next to him, their elbows nearly touching. 

Then they didn’t even speak a direct word to each other for the whole break. 

It was ridiculous. Ridiculous! That a stupid crush was what was causing him to be so... 

He didn’t even have a word. He had nothing! He was flustered! Out of sorts! 

_Head over heels._

He left with Stan and Kenny once again, the trio deciding to watch shitty after school TV at Kyle's house while Stan waited for Mrs Marsh to come pick him up. He was too wrapped up in his thoughts to really pay much attention to what was happening, letting the whole scenario pass him by as the three of them sat on the couch. 

"I think I’m going to ask Craig out.” 

Stan raised a brow, and Kenny spluttered his way through the cola he was drinking. 

“I think I’m going to go round to his house, and knock on his door, and ask him out.” 

“Wow,” Stan nodded slowly. “Good for you.” 

Kyle stood up from the couch, not looking at either of them as he balled his hands into fists at his sides. “I think it’s the right thing. Y’know, when I talked to him earlier, it was really...it was a really bad conversation, and I don’t think I’d be able to keep this under wraps. I think it’s better I just lay my cards on the table, and then I can move on.” 

“Go Kyle!” Kenny cheered. “Go get some!” 

Kyle turned and headed for the door. 

“Wait!" Stan ran after him. “Let me grab my coat.” 

“Wait,” Kyle turned to see his friend rushing over to where they’d ditched their bags in the corner of the room. “Why?” 

“I’ll come with you!” 

Kenny pottered over towards the front door and began to toe his shoes on. 

“You guys are not coming with me.” 

“Sure we are!” Kenny said. “We’ll be moral support or something. Make sure you get there okay. Be your hype-men.” 

“I don’t need hype-men.” 

“You so do,” Stan said as he pulled his coat on. “Besides, I can’t leave till mom comes to pick me up from the farm. You’re not going to ditch me and Kenny at your house, are you?” 

“I don’t want to look like some kind of pussy, rocking up with my two friends cause I’m too scared to do it on my own.” 

“How about to the front door, then? After that we’ll ditch you, and you can have your conversation in peace.” 

"I'm not okay with this!" 

Stan and Kenny ignored him and instead rushed out the house, leaving Kyle to grumble low as he followed the two who were leading the way to their destination, praying he didn’t lose his nerve. 

\--

Standing on the doorstep to the Tucker residence at half four in the afternoon, still in broad daylight for the whole street to see, he was beginning to lose his nerve. 

The walk over had been fine. He’d been revving himself up, trying to gather as much courage and motivation as he could. But as soon as they came up to Craig’s street, passing Jimmy’s and Bebe’s house, Craig’s coming into view, he was beginning to doubt himself. 

Maybe the smarter thing to do would have been to give himself some time to think this through. Maybe, if he was a little bit more delicate with is emotions, he’d let them process and understand them before he dived in head first. 

But he wasn’t delicate with his emotions, and if he was settled on something then he didn’t see the point in wasting time, and that led him here. 

Here, to standing on the doorstep to the Tucker residence at half four in the afternoon, losing his nerve. 

“This is dumb,” Kyle insisted. “Why are we even – why are you taking such an interest in this?!” 

“It’s funny,” Kenny supplied. 

“Because we care,” Stan corrected. “So much.” 

“Because you’re procrastinating doing your homework, you mean.” 

Stan gave a noncommittal sound, while Kenny just _shrugged_ at him. 

“Right,” Kyle clenched his fingers into fists at his side, sucking in a breath as he faced the door head on. “Here goes nothing.” 

“We’ll be right round the corner,” Stan assured. “You’ve got this, dude.” 

Kenny landed a solid pat to his back. “Go get ‘im, tiger.” 

Kyle raised his fist, heart pounding in his chest, chin held high as he prepared himself to knock on the door and-! 

“I can’t,” he spun round and started to walk the path back to the driveway. “I can’t do this.” 

“Kyle, no, don’t walk away,” Stan begged as he grabbed his elbow and pulled him back. “You’ve come this far!” 

“I don’t even know what I’m going to say!” Kyle defended as he threw his free arm wide. “I need a game plan – a real one! I can’t just – fumble through whatever this is! How is that impressive?!” 

“Just speak from the heart. Honesty is the best policy.” 

“I’m not a romantic like you, I don’t know how to do the flowery words! I’ll just…malfunction and start quoting history dates or something!” 

“Well then don’t ask him out now, just take it one step at a time, try to recover from that awkward stage.” 

“I know but-?!” he felt a flush creeping across his face. “I can’t stop thinking about it!” 

“If it makes you feel any better Kyle, I’m pretty sure he already knows you’re here.” 

The Super Best Friends turned their attention from each other to Kenny, who’s blue eyes were pinned upwards to the sky. When they followed his eyeline they discovered it was less the sky, and more the second storey window. 

Kyle felt a mixture of embarrassment and pure _horror_ flare up inside of him. 

There, with the window opened enough to hear what was happening below, were the Tucker siblings leaning out to listen in. Tricia looked positively ecstatic with a wide grin on her face and cheek resting on her hand as she watched the scene unfold. Craig on the other hand looked about as mortified as Kyle felt, brows pulled together with a hand over his mouth, looking redder in the face than Kyle thought he’d ever seen him. 

Tricia made things worse. 

She pushed the window open further and shouted out: “So when are you going to start quoting Romeo and Juliet-?! Hey! Don’t kick me!” 

She flipped her middle finger at her brother, who returned the gesture in kind. 

Kyle was snapped out of his stunned stupor by an elbow to the side, jumping out his skin and turning a glare to his best friend next to him, who gestured up with wide blue eyes and a hopeful smile. “Go on!” 

“No!” Kyle hissed out. “You said you’d scram!” 

“We weren’t going to scram that far though,” Stan argued. “Only far enough that you felt like you were in private, which, by this point…” 

Kenny rolled his eyes and took pity on the redhead at least, moving over to link his arm with Stan’s. “We’ll go hide behind the garage then, yeah? If you don’t come find us in like, ten minutes, I’ll assume you’re…busy.” 

He _really didn’t_ need the eyebrow waggle, but Kenny clearly couldn’t stop himself. 

When Kyle turned back to the window it was to find that Craig was bickering with his sister, who was whining in protest at his attempts to make her leave his room. Eventually he lifted her under the arms and disappeared from view. Kyle waited. 

He wondered if that was them both leaving. He cleared his throat and prepared to stand there a little while and hoped that Craig was actually coming back. 

But no one reappeared at the window. Instead the front door opened and he snapped his attention down, feeling a rush of relief course through him as a smile grew on his face at the sight of Craig in the doorway with his coat pulled loosely over his shoulders. 

“Hey,” he greeted. 

“Hey,” Craig said as he shut the door behind him. “I – uh – she was never going to leave us in peace. I figured I’d…just come outside.” 

“That’s probably for the best.” 

Craig nodded mutely. 

Kyle licked his lips and prepared to speak. 

A solid five seconds passed. 

“So I-?!” 

“Look I’m-?!” 

They cut themselves short as they started speaking together, and Kyle was quick to shift the responsibility away from himself. 

“Go ahead,” he offered. 

“No, you first.” 

“Really, it’s fine, it’s-?” 

“Kyle, you’ve been standing on my doorstep for like, ten minutes,” Craig pointed out with that dry tone he was so famous for. “Please, just…why are you here?” 

“Right,” he licked his lips again, as if it helped the first time. “So, I’m...sorry that I kind of ditched the conversation yesterday, like, after talking about avoiding you and then kind of...just avoiding you again. Though, I’m pretty sure it’s been kind of like, a mutual avoidance. But I’m still sorry about it.” 

Craig’s face twisted, but he nodded. “No, yeah, it’s been mutual.” 

“Well, I thought I should probably…own up to what’s been going on in my head, and…!” he sucked in a breath, steeled his nerves, and shut his eyes for a moment in a desperate attempt to summon all his courage. When he opened them again, he properly looked at Craig. 

The tall boy with his shoulders raised high, hands shoved into the pockets of his long, blue jacket. The boy who was biting down on his lower lip, a dusting of pink still settled across his cheeks that had been there since he’d opened the door. The boy with a nervous bounce in his left foot against his doorstep, as mesmerising grey eyes were locked with his own. 

The boy that he was crushing on. Something fierce. 

“I know I just wrote it off as Cartman being a dick, but this whole bullshit flame test had me thinking…” Kyle started. “That maybe I wanted it to be something romantic.” 

Craig’s eyes widened a fraction. 

“Because maybe I…actually do like you that way. Romantically. That is, so, maybe if you want to we could, like, do something together. Like, date-wise, if you’d…like to go out with me?” 

Craig…wasn’t exactly forthcoming with an answer. He seemed a little frozen in spot. 

Kyle was definitely patient though, at least, sometimes – okay, rarely – but he was sure he could be patient now, waiting for an answer. 

Waiting… 

“You’re overthinking it!” 

He snapped his head up and felt heat flare on his face as he saw Tricia Tucker back at Craig’s window, shouting down to her brother. 

“Sorry, he does this!” she told Kyle with a shrug. “His brain breaks down if he tries to process complex human emotions!” 

“Fuck _off_ , Ruby!” Craig shouted back, reaching down to grab a clump of snow and throw it in her direction. It scattered uselessly in the wind, but she still dodged out the way. “Would you just butt out?!” 

She pretended to disappear, but Kyle saw the top of her head peeking over the windowsill from the bottom. 

He tried his best to ignore her and instead turned back to Craig, waiting for his answer. 

“I-she’s not wrong,” Craig admitted. “About me – I overthink things. I have been overthinking it, that’s why I’ve been avoiding you. I wasn’t sure if this whole thing wasn’t just Cartman’s weird mind games, but…” he shrugged with the ghost of a smile on his face as he met Kyle’s gaze. “Then I think about how I’ve looked for every excuse to hang out with you recently and I think maybe it’s genuine.” 

“So…?” Kyle’s lips began to pull into a smile. “Does that mean…?” 

“When are you free?” 

“Now.” 

Craig’s brows cocked in amusement. 

“You mean when am I free next to – yeah that, uh, that makes more sense-?!” 

“Now’s fine,” Craig shrugged it off. “I’m not doing anything. I know that’s not technically how you’re meant to do dates, but…?” 

Kyle felt an unbridled rush of happiness and couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face. “Fuck doing it how you’re meant to. You’ve avoided me for like, days, and I want to hang out with you _now_.” 

“Hey!” Craig stepped forward to shove him with his shoulder. “Don’t act like you weren’t avoiding me too!” 

They wandered aimlessly for what felt like not long enough with stilted, low conversation that set Kyle's heart alight. 

Sure, maybe sometimes it took him a little while to figure out his emotions and sure, maybe he needed help from time to time. But once he'd figured this out, he was pretty confident in how he felt. 

He felt completely, utterly infatuated with this smart, handsome, lazy and sometimes mean-spirited boy. He couldn't get enough of it. 


End file.
